


Author 




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Ift— 2717»- 



WITH THE COMPLIMENTS 
OF THE AUTHOR 



EDUCATION IN ENGINEERING AND 
APPLIED SCIENCE at the MASSACHU- 
SETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 

By ARTHUR A. NOYES. Acting Prciidcni 



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EDUCATION IN ENGINEERING AND APPLIED 

SCIENCE AT THE MASSACHUSETTS 

INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 

A Speech delivered by Anbur A. Noyei, Acting Pretident, before the Alumni Association at 

Boaton, January lo, 1908 



Much as the matter has been discussed during recent years, it has 
seemed to me that there was no more important subject on which I could 
speak to you to-night than the principles underlying the Institute's system 
of education in engineering and applied science; for the relations of its field of 
work to that of other institutions can be understood, and its lines of future 
development can be properly provided for, only when those fundamental 
principles are appreciated. I shall incidentally speak of the educational 
progress of the past year. 

The higher education of men for the engineering or scientific professions 
involves three kinds of educational experience: — 

First, such studies, student activities, and social surroundings as give 
breadth of view and scholarly interests and develop in the student the 
personal qualities essential to cordial and effective relations with other 
men. 

Second, a thorough knowledge of the fundamental principles of those 
sciences upon which the future profession depends, a training in scientific 
method, and a development of the power of investigating scientific problems. 

Third, specialized knowledge and practice in the branch of engineering 
or applied science constituting the profession itself, and original work in 
solving practical problems or in designing new structures or machines. 

These three sides of professional education I will for brevity designate the 
general training, the scientific training, and the engineering or technical 
training. 

Let us consider now how the different types of institutions aim to meet 
these three requirements. The college, by its Bachelor-of-Arts course in 
the humanities and in the generalities of science, offers what from the In- 



stitute*s standard of work represents about three years of general training. 
The university schools of medicine or engineering then take these Bachelors 
of Arts, without adequate scientific training though perhaps with some scien- 
tific knowledge, and give them in a period of three or four years more a com- 
bination of scientific and technical training. The Institute, speaking 
generally, may be said to devote the first two and a half years of its courses 
to a combination of general and scientific training in not far from equal 
proportions, and to give the last year and a half to engineering or technical 
training. 

Without undervaluing the opportunities which the preliminary collegi- 
ate course aflFords to certain types of students and for certain professional 
ends, let me recall to you some of the distinct advantages of our own system 
of education. In the first place, we believe that, aside from its professional 
aspect, the supplementing of general studies by a scientific training in the 
first three years gives a broader culture and a better preparation for life than 
the usual college course where the instruction in science is made subordinate; 
for we hold, in the words of one of our American psychologists, "Science is 
the chief factor in culture and in life." We believe, too, that the co-ordina- 
tion of general and scientific studies throughout a single course gives better 
results rather than the plan of having the one precede the other. We 
question even the correctness of the fundamental principle of the university 
plan that the early years of a young man's education should be devoted to 
the acquirement of culture and the later years to scientific and technical 
training. We believe the opposite plan is the natural one. The young 
man must be thoroughly trained in the earlier years — to work hard, to 
think clearly, to express himself well, and to attack and solve problems; 
that the expansion of his mental horizon which constitutes culture must be 
a gradual process going on through all the years of his study and through his 
subsequent life. At the age when young men enter upon higher education 
the mental organism is fast losing its plasticity and is setting into the form 
which it will retain forever; and there is no time to lose in moulding into it 
those habits of thought and habits of work which are essential to the accom- 
plishment of great results. We, therefore, prefer to show our students at 
once "the steep and thorny way" to success rather than to afford them 
opportunity to wander in the "primrose path of dalliance." If at the end 
of our course we can send our men forth with well-developed faculties, with 
high ideals and earnestness of purpose, and with sufl&cient general educa- 
tion to realize the variety of human activities, we can safely trust to the future 
years of contact with the world and to natural development to bring added 



3 

breadth of view and that intangible quality which is called culture. We hold, 
too, that, while the student should be given the freest choice as to the profes- 
sion and the branch of the profession for which he wishes to prepare him- 
self, we are the better judges of what special studies are adapted to give 
him that preparation. We believe in offering a large choice of courses with 
options within those courses, but not in the unregulated elective system. 
Finally, we should appreciate the great advantage of our sound student 
life and the possibilities of further developing it under conditions which 
will not introduce the evils that often attend it in the colleges. 

I have discussed these characteristics of our undergraduate courses be- 
cause it is important for us all to realize that the Institute has a field and 
system of education of its own in \%hich it is highly successful. Some of the 
older alumni seem to have the feeling that students at the Institute miss 
something rather essential which a college course would give them. This 
feeling arises, I believe, from the failure to realize that much of what they 
themselves missed on the social side is now in large measure provided for 
by the great development of student life which has taken place within the 
last ten years, and that, if they do miss somethings they got more than its 
equivalent in acquiring the solid qualities which the college course so often 
fails to give. It is an interesting fact that the college men upon our Faculty 
who have had experience with both systems of education are the heartiest 
believers in our own. 

It is, of course, true that a larger amount of time than four years could 
with advantage be devoted to each one of the three sides of our professional 
education; and we must offer additional opportunities in these directions. 

It must, on the one hand, be distinctly recognized that v*t cannot hope to 
give in this period the specialized knowledge and the training in investi- 
gation that it is desirable that the fully educated engineer or scientific expert 
should have; and we must make obvious to all students the importance of 
returning for a fifth year in order to secure these advantages. During the 
present year an important step in this direction has been taken by announc- 
ing in almost all departments a large number of subjects of instruction 
(over sixty in all) dealing with the more advanced topics and the recent 
developments of engineering and applied science, such, for example, as 
the design of structures in re-enforced concrete and of railroad and hydraulic 
works, the study of gas engines and steam turbines, the design of dynamos 
and power stations. 

An advanced course made up of such stibjects and of investigation work 
will remedy the difficulty of insufficient engineering training; but it is 



also, I believe, important for the Institute to offer to its students another 
type of five-year course which will enable those who can afford the time to 
secure a broader general training and a more thorough scientific founda- 
tion. A plan for accomplishing this, which is under consideration by a 
Committee of the Faculty, consists in offering a three-year course in general 
science made up partly of required and partly of elective subjects of such a 
character that the student who has completed it can enter the third year of 
any of our regular courses and finish it in two years more. By thus re- 
placing the first two years' work by three, he will have the opportunity of 
including a much larger proportion of studies of a general and fundamental 
character. Such a three-year course carried on by the methods and in the 
atmosphere of the scientific school can hardly fail to be more cultural in the 
truest sense than the usual college course taken upon the elective plan with- 
out a definite professional aim in view. 

While it is highly desirable to offer to our students such opportunities 
as these for a broader as well as for a more thorough and specialized educa- 
tion, I believe the results of our four-year course are at present sufficiently 
satisfactory to make it unwarranted to require for our Bachelor's degree a 
longer term of study than four years, — at any rate, so long as the cost cannot 
be materially reduced; for we should thereby further limit the number 
of young men who are able to educate themselves for the scientific profes- 
sions. I hold this belief the more strongly because the possibilities of our 
four-year period have not as yet been fully realized. It is, therefore, to in- 
creasing the effectiveness of our undergraduate instruction and to improv- 
ing the social and physical conditions of our student life that our attention 
must be mainly devoted; and with the solution of these problems the Faculty 
and its administrative officers are engaged. Because we of the Faculty 
are earnest believers in the plan of education for which the Institute stands 
and in the kind of training which it affords, it must not be thought that we 
fail to realize that there are many defects in our execution of that plan and 
many individual cases in which an adequate training is not secured. 

Let me mention briefly some of the steps which have recently been taken 
or are under consideration for attaining better results. A somewhat radical 
change has been made in the curricula of our engineering courses through 
the omission of the second-year work in modern languages; and the time 
thus gained has been utilized to increase the amount of instruction in Eng- 
lish and history and to give a more thorough drill in fundamental engineer- 
ing subjects, especially in applied mechanics, structures, and steam engineer- 
ing. It is felt that few engineers make practical use of their knowledge of 



5 

modem languages, and that the general and scientific studies that have been 
substituted are not only more directly useful, but either have a higher cul- 
tural value or provide a better mental training. 

A plan for securingcloser individual contact between students and their in- 
structors and for assistinp; such students as have special difficulties has been 
entered upon to a limited extent during the present year. The instructors 
in English and mathematics meet each first-year student individually 
several times during the term and discuss the work together. It is hoped 
this conference plan and the plan of smaller sections may be greatly ex- 
fended. The additional expense which it has so far involved has been 
met by an appropriation from the alumni contribution. 

Another development of the undergraduate work which is under con- 
sideration is the requirement of summer work for four or five weeks in the 
summer following the first and second years. To the summer would be 
transferred some of the laboratory practice, drawing, shop work and field 
work, thus giving time for more general studies, for more thorough work 
in fundamental subjects, and for relieving the pressure which is excessive 
at certain periods in our courses. 

The development which student activities have undergone within recent 
years is perhaps not appreciated by many of the older alumni, who are apt 
to picture the Institute as they knew it during their own student days. 
This development has, moreover, been in the main a thoroughly healthy 
one; and there is to-day in our student body a loyal, earnest, democratic 
spirit such as exists in few institutions. Their activity has been well 
illustrated during the past two weeks by the vigorous agitation, on the part 
of a dozen different student organizations, for the use of the Institute Build- 
ing on Clarendon Street, now occupied by the Copley Society, as a social 
and dining hall, which might serve temporarily the purposes of the Walker 
Memorial Building. This suggestion should receive the careful considera- 
tion of both Corporation and alumni; for, if financial provision for it can 
be made and a just arrangement with the Copley Society can be effected, 
it has much to commend it. It will afford a general and readily accessible 
gathering place for all our students. In it meals can be furnished at low 
cost of better quality and under better social conditions than those afforded 
by the cheaper class of boarding-houses. Rooms can be made available 
for the offices of the general student organizations, such as the Tech and 
Technique boards, the Tech Show management, the musical clubs, and 
for the meetings of other student societies. Perhaps the most important 
consideration of all is that this temporary experiment will give us at small 



expense a most valuable experience, which will enable us to make more 
perfect arrangements for the permanent Walker Memorial. 

What I have said will, perhaps, serve to show you that, even though it 
has been necessary to delay for a time the large physical development which 
is essential to the full success of the Institute and to its future welfare, yet 
in the two most important respects — the improvement of our work of in- 
struction and the creation of satisfactory conditions of student life — we 
are steadily moving onward. And if we all have faith that the Institute 
has an educational mission of its own; if, without being blind to its imper- 
fections and the many opportunities for improvement we realize that it 
has a rich inheritance from the past in its standards of work, its methods 
of instruction, and the earnestness of spirit of its students and its teachers; 
if we have confidence that its work is of such importance to the industrial 
interests of this country and this State that, when the need arises, it will be 
adequately supported; and if, counting on this support, we face coura- 
geously and with unshaken resolution the problems of development which 
confront us, — there is every reason to believe that the Institute will continue 
to hold that pre-eminent position in the field of scientific and technological 
education which will alone satisfy the expectations of its alumni. 



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